Quatre Bras

Context

The place owes its name only to its function: the crossing of the Brussels-Charleroi highway and the Nivelles-Namur road, four arms of road and an inn. Whoever holds this junction holds the link between the Anglo-Dutch army and the Prussian army. That is why, on 16 June 1815, two battles were fought the same day fifteen kilometres apart.

Forces

France: about 24,000 men, the left wing under Ney, with Reille's corps and Kellermann's cuirassiers.

Allies: about 36,000 men by the end of the day, but only a few thousand in the morning — Wellington reinforced the crossroads hour by hour.

Course of the battle

Ney attacked late and piecemeal, against troops that kept growing. The Duke of Brunswick was killed at the head of his black hussars; the Scots held the rye fields around the Bossu wood. Kellermann's cuirassiers broke through the allied centre for a moment, then were thrown back for want of support.

Meanwhile d'Erlon's corps, which could have decided the issue here as at Ligny, marched between the two battlefields on contradictory orders and arrived nowhere in time. By nightfall the allies still held the crossroads.

Consequences

Nothing was decisively won or lost, which is precisely the problem. Having failed to take the crossroads, the French army did not separate its two opponents: Wellington fell back in order the next day on the plateau of Mont-Saint-Jean, and Blücher knew where to join him. Waterloo is partly decided here, two days earlier.